Its Sanskrit name Devadāru means ‘wood of the gods’. Introduced to Britain around 1831, reportedly by William Leslie Melville of the East India Company, who sent seed cones to Fife, it became a fashionable specimen at Georgian and Victorian estates. Also called Himalayan Cedar. Early plantings disappointed, as wide genetic variation made provenance matching crucial.
Unlike the two Mediterranean cedars featured, Deodar is native to the western Himalayas: Kashmir and Garhwal in India, the Karakoram in Pakistan (its national tree), the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan, and far western Nepal. It grows in subtropical and mixed temperate forests.
Monoecious, wind-pollinated.
The tallest cedar (40-50m cultivated, 60m wild), usually single-trunked but sometimes multi-stemmed above. Bark grey and smooth, later cracking, darkening and fissuring. Soft, dense foliage in ‘plates’ on horizontal branches that droop at the tips, the leader always drooping. Needles soft, to 5cm (longest of the cedars), blue-green. Female cones large, upright, flat-topped, the rachis persisting.
Grow in sheltered, well-drained sites, avoiding clay and alkaline soils; it copes with very steep slopes. Water young trees in drought. Of the cedars, it is most prone to spring-frost damage; later it needs little care. Specimens need much room. It can grow in mixed forests free of competition, though shade reduces its heavy branching. Slow growth has limited forestry interest.
In its native range, grows in mixed forests of maples, oaks, true firs, junipers and pines.
Generally problem-free, but like many conifers can be infected by honey fungus. May benefit under a warming climate, resisting drought conditions.
This durable timber was traditionally used for boat-building in India and is among the most important timbers across its range. Attempts to grow it for timber in Britain and Ireland failed, as the oceanic climate gave less durable wood. Its brittle timber suits neither furniture. It remains a popular ornamental needing space, with golden, glaucous, weeping and dwarf forms.
